fellows, national correspondent for "the atlantic" and the national political editor for the associated press, liz. thanks for being with us. does this time feel different to you? >> yes. i thought the president's remarks last night were significantly different from what we've heard from him and from his predecessors over the last couple decades whenever we had school shootings, shopping mall shootings, theater shootings because there's been the assumption of a kind of ritual until now, where there would be shock, there would be asking what went wrong, the effects on the families. the president or governor leading the nation in some sort of commemoration, but then the certain knowledge that nothing was going to change. last night, the president saying he was going to use whatever power his office held to try to make sure this didn't happen in the same way. to me, that was a turn. >> liz, we heard dianne feinstein on "meet the press" saying she was going to revive the assault weapons ban. listen to senator joe manchin

who has a rating of "a" with the nra. >> everything has to be on the table and i think it will be. when you look at it, if dianne is saying assault weapons, i don't know anyone in the sporting or hunting arena that goes out with an assault rifle. i don't know anybody that needs 30 rounds in a clip to go hunting. >> does that sound to you like the beginning of some sort of change? because david gregory said that they reached out to all 31 pro-gun senators, none of them would come on the program. what chance does some kind of bill have? >> well, i think both the president's signal that he would do everything in his power was pretty striking and also the fact that you heard very little until today from the gun rights lobby signals both that this is going to be a political fight but it may not be as big of a political fight as it was or would have been after some of these others. i think the fact that innocent children were involved, were the

victims here, really may have opened the nation's eyes to the need for some kind of stricter controls on, you know, on like the assault weapons ban. but what you also saw from i think senator manchin is that while the gun rights lobby may bend, it may only go so far. listen to what he said. he didn't go so far beyond the assault weapons ban. >> well, i'm wondering,james, if given the fact that frankly we're still dealing with the fiscal cliff and that's an immediate issue that they're going to talk about, and we have a tendency in these situations to feel this grief very deeply as we did at columbine, as we did in the case of arizona, where gabbi giffords was shot, as we did with the movie theater shooting in colorado, but we move on. is there a fairly small window of opportunity to essentially move on something that can be

driven by this anger that a lot of americans are feeling, this heartbreak, james? >> that's certainly the case as you say, that there is this doing one thing at a time phenomenon both for us in the news media and for the political system, too. as soon as some new emergency comes up, whatever we were concerned about two days ago seems not to matter. i think, however, there are a couple reasons to think this might be different. unlike other people on the show, i'm old enough to actually remember the political assassinations of the 1960s and there were so many of them, so routinely, there was a sense this cannot be just the norm of american life which i think was what the president was saying last night. we've gotten used to all these shootings every week or two and if we're going to accept that, that is just something terrible about our national essence. i was also very struck by senator manchin, who is one of the staunchest gun rights people in the senate, of recognizing what you could say are areas of reasonable compromise, that hunters don't need ar-15s to be shooting deer, don't need 30 round magazines or whatever.

so areas of trying to enhance gun safety while not having people like senator manchin think all of their guns are going to be taken away, that could be an avenue for some kind of step forward. >> i want to bring in connecticut senator richard blumenthal. senator, it's good of you to join me because you and i talked last night right after the president spoke, and since getting up this morning, i opened the local newspaper here, and i don't know if you can see this, but it's two pages of obituaries and of course, most of them are the pictures of little children. you cannot look at that and -- these are people in a community that you know. what can be done about this, senator? what are you willing to commit to this morning to see that something like this can't happen again? >> i think that there are a number of measures that are achievable and necessary, although we have to keep in mind that no single one of them is a panacea that will solve this

problem. an assault weapon ban such as we had in the united states some years ago, it expired in 2004, is a good place to begin. a restriction on high capacity magazines. this killer entered the school, blasted his way into it with multiple magazines of 30 rounds each, with bullets that could blow apart human beings, and then of course, better enforcement of the laws that we have now. we need to devote the resources to the police and atf and other agencies that have responsibility for gun violence prevention. national health efforts, restrictions perhaps on some kinds of ammunition, on certain kinds of body armor, if that is an option as well. so i think there are a number of measures and i would commit to a program that is sensible and commonsense. my colleague joe manchin has taken a very significant step in

the right direction. i think his commitment is a sign that the national debate and discussion have been transformed by this horrific incident because in part, it does involve 6 and 7-year-old children, 20 of them, who were on their way to making gingerbreads or learning their abc and i think that this kind of horrific incident can be a turning point. >> we've heard from other of your colleagues, senator schumer, for example, wants restrictions on bullet clips. just this morning, we heard from senator lieberman. he had said yesterday he was pushing a national commission on violence, but it does seem like the timing here is crucial. here's what senator lieberman said less than an hour ago. >> i made this proposal yesterday because i don't want us to lose the hurt and the anger that we feel now and our resolve to do something, and often, time dulls the hurt and

anger and gun control measures are put into congress and boxed up, and we go on until the next tragedy. >> i was just having this conversation with james, senator. do you think there is a window of opportunity and how critical is the timing here? >> there is a window of opportunity, and it needs to be seized. we need to galvanize the country and it will be the country ultimately standing up and speaking out that will change the debate. the outrage and grief that is felt so widely now can really change the arc of the debate, the kind of mood and tenor we have seen so far but the moment needs to be seized and i agree that we need to build on the kinds of support that has been forthcoming, whether it's from joe manchin or the statement, very powerfully made, by joe scarborough earlier this

morning. that kind of change of heart and change of mind reflects the gravity of this situation and the essential visceral sense that people have. >> let me ask you very quickly, senator, because you did mention at the top that no one thing is going to be a panacea and it is not just gun control. there are conversations about how we treat the mentally ill in this society. there has been talk about societal changes that may need to take place in terms of how much we expose our children to violence. there are some indications that this shooter here seemed to have an affinity for extremely graphically violent video games. what about the bigger picture even beyond gun control? >> beyond gun control, there are the cultural aspects of violence in our society, whether it's video games or movies. that kind of debate is healthy for a society. no single right is absolute.

the first amendment is not an absolute right, nor is the second, but both are deeply enshrined in our constitution and i want to make clear that no one is talking about eliminating or even substantially restricting those rights. what needs to be done is a balance, and in addressing the cultural and the other kinds of elements of our society that need to be addressed, i think that a sensitivity of those rights has to be maintained and of course, finally, the mental health issues, you know, we need to be sensitive to reaching out, providing treatment, detecting mental health issues before they culminate in this kind of horrific incident. >> senator richard blumenthal, i know niethese have been long da and nights for you. kind of you to stay and talk with us. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> i want to bring james and liz back in. let me play to you just to the point that the senator was

making, one more clip from the president last night. >> are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the face of such carnage? that the politics are too hard? are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom? >> liz, we will hear a lot about this second amendment in the days and weeks to come, but we're also going to hear arguments about whether or not this could have been prevented with stricter gun control laws. how do you see this battle playing out? >> i think that the president signaled very strongly last night that he's willing to do what it takes. now, whether he knows what exactly those steps are going to be is something i think the white house is working on right now. but i think the virtual silence from the gun rights lobby says a

lot. i think they know that this is a turning point and the president seems to already have a partner to a certain extent in at least one republican senator. so i think it's going to be a tough fight but maybe less tough than -- maybe not as tough as it would have been say after the last few incidents. >> james, is that your analysis of this? >> yes. i just wanted to underscore one part of what the president was saying. when he said we have become used to this as just the norm of our society, i spent a lot of my working life outside the united states, and from outside, many things about the united states are marvelled at in a positive way. our university system, the resiliency of our politics, the mobility that still exists here despite some of the impediments to it. the one part of american culture that is simply unlike anyplace else in the world except maybe somalia in its darkest times is the frequency of these kind of

mass shootings which just doesn't happen -- single episodes happen in australia or the uk or other places, but then they don't recur again and again. so i think the president was saying something about the nature of us as a people. if there is something we can do to, again, not take guns away from people but find ways to have that right be balanced in a less destructive way with the rest of society's rights, i think his laying down a marker saying we have to ask who we are, what we accept as normal and can we countenance the idea of 20 little children being murdered in ten minutes. so i think it may be for those reasons and those that liz was saying, it could be a turning point. >> thanks to both of you for being with us this morning. james mentioned those 20 little children. well, funerals for two of those victims are going to be held today. services for 6-year-old noah

pozner will take place. 6-year-old jack pinto will be laid to rest this afternoon in newtown. he was a huge fan of giants wide receiver victor cruz. cruz honored jack by writing his name on his cleats for yesterday's game. cruz plans to drive to newtown to give those items to jack's family. ♪ the weather outside is frightful ♪ ♪ but the fire is so delightful ♪ nothing melts away the cold like a hot, delicious bowl of chicken noodle soup from campbell's. ♪ let it snow, let it snow

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we are back live in newtown, connecticut. the question is being asked have we finally reached a tipping point in the contentious gun control debate. the tragedy here in newtown is renewing calls to ban assault weapons and high capacity clips. new york city mayor michael bloomberg, who has been an outspoken gun control advocate, will make an announcement on gun

violence in just a couple of hours. he's calling on the president to take the lead. >> we've got to really question whether military style weapons with big magazines belongs on the streets of america in this day and age. nobody questions the second amendment's right to bear arms but i don't think the founding fathers had the idea that every man, woman and child could carry an assault weapon, and i think the president, through his leadership, could get a bill like that through congress. but at least he's got to try. >> let's bring in dan gross, president of the brady campaign to prevent gun violence. dan, thanks so much for being with us. as you know, this tragedy has struck so deeply at the hearts of americans but at the same time, the nra is not going to go away so let me ask you a strategic question. how do you maximize your chances of getting some meaningful legislation passed in congress? >> i think it comes down to a simple formula which is make the voice of the american public heard. every day, we're in contact with

families, not just the families from newtown but families from aurora and columbine and virginia tech and the 32 murders that happen every day in our country. there is consensus out there. we as a nation know we are better than this. we were so inspired by how the president talked about it last night, how it's being framed now which is how it should always be framed. we have to ask ourselves are we doing enough to protect the safety of our children, and if we're honest with ourselves, the answer to that question is no. >> but the problem, dan, as you know, because when i was back in colorado for the shooting at the movie theater, i spoke with many of the same people who lost loved ones at columbine a dozen years earlier. they're still in the fight and they still haven't seen the kind of change that they wanted so strategically, how do you make this time different? >> there has been a conversation that's been percolating among the american public around this. you know, the foundation for change is out there. 74% of nra members support something like criminal

background checks. the american public wants change. the key is connecting the dots between what the american public wants and what our elected officials are doing about it, and that's been the missing link to this point. very often these tragedies will happen and it will immediately just be a question of a political agenda. first we need to frame this in the context of a social agenda. we as a nation are better than this. that's how you build a movement. it will take a movement like that to overcome the money and the perceived, perceived power of the gun lobby. with the american public on our side, we know that this one's going to be different. also, obviously, the details of this one are hitting home. you cannot be a parent or even a decent human being and look at what happened to these poor children and hear the details of this continue to come out, and not be moved, inspired, outraged toward action and that also around this tragedy is at an unprecedented level and that combined with this conversation that's already happening, where you have people from across the country, across the political spectrum, gun owners, people who belong to the nra, all saying as

a nation as the president said last night in his speech, we can do better than this. we are better than this. that really is the key. it's not an inside politics thing. it's making the voice of the overwhelming majority of americans who are out there who have now reached a tipping point because of this tragedy, heard. >> there is a tragic number that i just read this morning, reports that one of the little boys who is going to be buried today was shot 11 times. we do know from police that adam lanza was on two hand guns, a semi-automatic weapon and incredible number, hundreds of bullets. at the same time, those were legally registered weapons and what do you say to people who argue strict laws are not going to stop someone who is mentally ill and determined to commit a crime like this? >> it's not true on several levels. first of all, like the president also said last night, we can't use the fact that you can't prevent every one of these tragedies as an excuse for inaction. so would something like a

background check have prevented this tragedy, possibly not. but if we had different social norms in this country where we had a different conversation about guns, where a mother before making a decision to bring guns into her home realized the danger of doing that with a son that has a mental illness, that's a conversation that we need to have. it seems like we can have honest conversations about all sorts of problems that we have in our country but we can't seem to have one about the realistic danger that guns pose. the other thing is there are things that we can do policy-wise to keep guns out of the hands of dangerously mentally ill people. right now, only 60% of all gun sales in our country require background checks. so it's illegal for somebody who has been adjudicated mentally ill to buy a gun. the problem is 40% of all gun sales, there are no background checks. just by passing a simple law like that, making the background checks that exist through the brady bill universal apply to gun shows, apply to the big gun show that exists every day over

the internet, we can prevent many of the 32 murders that happen every day in our country, not just these big high profile tragedies that capture our nation's attention. >> dan gross from the brady campaign, thank you so much. >> thank you. school districts across the country have been boosting security today in the wake of the shooting, including some in missouri, california, alabama, virginia and pennsylvania. the los angeles police department says it's increasing patrols around the schools. the chief there says his department is putting a permanent plan into place. >> we won't be there all the time but nobody will ever know when we will be there and that's very important. red jars are all the same right? wrong! you need three uses of a $15 cream to equal the moisturizing power of one use of regenerist microsculpting cream. seems not all red jars are created equal. olay regenerist.

seems not all red jars are created equal. ...so as you can see, geico's customer satisfaction is at 97%. mmmm tasty. and cut! very good. people are always asking me how we make these geico adverts. so we're taking you behind the scenes. this coffee cup, for example, is computer animated. it's not real. geico's customer satisfaction is quite real though. this computer-animated coffee tastes dreadful. geico. 15 minutes could save you 15 % or more on car insurance. someone get me a latte will ya, please? to politics now, where south carolina governor nikki haley will announce her pick to replace retiring senator jim demint today. she will hold a news conference at noon. senator demint is leaving to take a job with the heritage foundation. secretary of state hillary clinton is home this week recovering from a concussion.

her doctors say she got a stomach virus, became dehydrated and fainted, then she hit her head and got a concussion. she will not testify before congress this week on the attack on the american consulate in benghazi. but the results of an independent review about what happened that day are expected to be presented to the state department today, according to one report. the electoral college will officially cast its ballots today. it still won't make president obama's victory official, though. congress has to certify the count on january 6th. we will have much more from newtown in our next half hour as well as news from washington, including some movement potentially on the fiscal cliff negotiations. could there be light at the end of the tunnel? i love the holidays. and with my bankamericard cash rewards credit card, i love 'em even more. i earn 1% cash back everywhere, every time. 2% on groceries. 3% on gas. automatically. no hoops to jump through. that's 1% back on... [ toy robot sounds ] 2% on pumpkin pie. and apple.

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bringing a toddler to a makeshift memorial that has come up and that child placing flowers at the scene. it's been repeated all across this town over the last three days. we will have much more for you on this tragedy coming up. in the meantime, back in washington, for the first time in the fiscal cliff talks, sources tell nbc news that president obama and speaker boehner are now, quote, in the ballpark. the big breakthrough came when speaker boehner offered to raise income tax rates on the highest earners, those making $1 million a year. boehner also offered to take the debt ceiling fight off the table for a year. let's bring in democratic strategist chris and republican strategist david winston. chris, could these latest developments actually lead to a deal? what do you think? >> i think there is definitely some progress towards that. we'll see in the next few days. i think especially in light of that horrific tragedy on friday in newtown, i think there's not

a lot of tolerance in the country right now for politics. i think both the president and speaker boehner understand that things have changed in a very short amount of time in a dramatic way. i think they realize the last thing this country needs to be worrying about is a fiscal cliff when there's a lot bigger things that are happening right now in the country. >> yeah, i was wondering about that myself, whether or not, i mean, people are already frankly pretty fed up with the way politics was going in this country and the lack of movement in congress. but they are also distracted by the fact that it's the holiday season. we know that speaker boehner could face some push-back from republicans on some of these things he's talking about, but do you think that there will be an awareness in congress that the american people really have zero tolerance for this now? >> i mean, i agree with chris. i think certainly friday's events put things in perspective in terms of what's priority to people and just, again, just the pain and suffering that's going

on in newtown is just beyond comprehension. having said that, i think what that also does is it says to politicians, both republican and democrat, it's time to make this work. i think what you've seen from the speaker is he laid out that first step in terms of looking at folks making over $1 million, potentially saying okay, for those willing to put that on the table, although again, i've not had any direct statement in terms of that from the speaker's office, that's clearly what's out there. i do have to go back to one point. i have not heard from anybody the debt ceiling part of that, that the debt ceiling is still a part of negotiations in the sense that the speaker has always said that when we get to that, there's going to have to be a dollar reduction for every dollar that the ceiling is raised. >> so you think that that's not something likely that he could possibly get his caucus to go along with?

>> i don't think -- that has not been a point of discussion, at least as i understand, in terms of what the speaker said in terms of moving that direction. right now he made that big -- from what i have heard, he has made that big shift in terms of being willing to look at those making over $1 million and that's actually come from democrats as well. remember, senator schumer was actually the first person to suggest that last year, and so that is something where there have been some democrats who have advocated that particular position. >> chris, in exchange for raising taxes, speaker boehner wants apparently $1 trillion in spending cuts as well as to raise the medicare eligibility age. do you see the president budging on either front? >> i think it's very difficult to see those kind of details. you may see kind of broad stroke detail which is kind of a bit of a contradiction, but where they kind of lay out a plan that they agree on, then they come back in the new year and kind of fill in the blanks, if you will. it's very tough to see how you get that kind of entitlement

reform deal cut in the next few days. i think the president has clearly said he's open to entitlement reform depending on what the republicans do on taxes. again, i think a lot of this, you know, unfortunately, this is the way washington has worked. wait until the last minute to deal with big problems, and this is where we are. unfortunately, it doesn't give us a lot of time to actually solve the problem in a sensible, reasonable way. i think you're going to have a deal because i think again, people realize there's a lot bigger things to worry about right now in terms of how big and significant that deal is, i honestly don't know. but i think it will be enough to avoid the fiscal cliff. >> thank you. gentlemen, we are out of time, unfortunately. thank you both. turning back now to the tragedy here in newtown, the politics of change, including gun control, surely is being fueled by the ages of the young victims. of course, 6 and 7 years old. i spoke this morning to john engel, whose cousin was

6-year-old olivia engel. she called him uncle john. >> thank you so much for telling olivia's story. i think this is important for the family. the family can't be here, they can't talk about their daughter. it's too soon. but they were gratified by the story they saw yesterday describing olivia so it encouraged us to try and talk about her and the kind of person she was. >> well, the pastor at her church, father bob, as they call reverend weiss, when i first talked to him before we knew any of the names, the first thing he talked about to me was the little girl who was going to play the angel in the christmas pageant. tell me about her, because he thought she was just a light. >> she loved to dance. she loved to be in theater. she loved to sing. she was a creative, outgoing, effervescent lovely little girl.

she was a great sister. her younger brother, braden. she was very close. >> he must miss her so much. >> he's asking for her all week. >> this sounds like such a trite question but how are the parents doing? i don't even know how you deal with something like this. >> they are a family with tremendous faith. they go to church mass every week. she led the grace every night at dinner and was learning her rosary and i think their faith is getting them through this. the support of their friends and family are getting them through this. i think that this is not a wound, a hurt that will ever heal, but i think that their faith will support them.

>> how are you doing? can you describe where you are emotionally now? are you angry, are you just sad? what can you tell people about how you are coping? >> it's definitely not anger. the family and myself were not focused on the news. we're not watching the stories. we're not interested, we're not participating in the frenzy of attention about the incident. we're really not interested in the incident. we're really only interested in the 26 people who died and who they were, and talking in a positive way about them and supporting the families. i mean, these were all of olivia's best friends. these were her daisy scouts with

her who were lost, and so all of our focus is there on the little kids and their teachers. >> a lot of people have been e-mailing me and asking me how this community is doing. one of the things john told me off camera was that he spent yesterday at the cemetery with two families picking out plots for two 6-year-old children so i think that tells you what the community is going through right now. there are a few other stories we want to tell you about making news this morning. police are investigating a shooting in the parking lot of a movie theater in san antonio, texas. they say a man opened fire at a restaurant next door, then kept shooting across the parking lot and into the theater, hitting a bystander. an off-duty deputy was able to stop the man by shooting him four times. he has been hospitalized. it is going to be a busy day at post offices across the country. today is expected to be the busiest mailing day of the year for holiday cards, letters and

packages. an estimated 658 million items could go through the mail service today alone. a box office record this weekend. "the hobbit" earning almost $85 million nationwide. bigger than any of the openings for any "lord of the rings" movie and the biggest december opening of all time. finally, a city that underwent its own tragedy held a special vigil last night to honor the victims of the newtown school shooting. more than 100 people attending the ceremony in tucson, including congressman ron barber. barber was shot in january 2011 during the town hall event that critically wounded congresswoman gabbi giffords. the names of the children were read and candles were lit for them. one woman said quote, it gives you hope for humanity. ♪

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the elementary school tragedy here in connecticut has rekindled a fierce debate not just about gun control. it's renewed serious questions about how we deal with mental illness and the influence of violent video games. i want to bring in msnbc contributor goldie taylor, managing editor of the goldie taylor project, nbc latino contributor victoria soto, fellow for the center of politics at the university of texas austin and kelly wallace. i want to thank you for coming in. goldie, i want to start with you because i know this is very personal for you. you wrote about gun violence in your family. your dad and your brother were both murdered and you owned a gun i guess in part to help you feel secure, but now you've turned yours in. why, and do you think others will follow suit? is this different? will things change? >> i turned in my gun which this particular gun, i've owned for six years, this morning at 8:00

a.m. to a member of law enforcement. that gun was more likely to impact me or someone else in our family, and that's what typically happens with private home use more often than, say, shooting a burglar or someone else that you might be assaulted by. what's happened is there are people around the country, i think it was reported yesterday that people from los angeles, chicago, miami, people are turning in their guns because simply, you know, they are probably the most dangerous consumer product out there on the market, and people who are not properly trained, people who cannot shoot in a dynamic theater, and i'm a former marine, simply cannot believe that they are suddenly going to be john maclean in some kind of mass shooting. >> i know i-village has an active community. i wonder what you're hearing online. >> oh, chris, women are talking about this. moms are talking about this. on friday i was writing a post

saying enough is enough, when are we going to do something as a country about gun violence. so many people responded and many people responded also saying you know, it's not just guns and access to guns and laws. we need to talk about access to mental health services. what are we doing to our children in need. and we need to talk about this whole culture of violence, how we have become desensitized in a lot of ways. one of the moms said we need a movement of women, a movement of parents, to get things done and to make sure and hold our leaders accountable, that something happens and something gets done this time, and it seems from the tenor of the conversation, women are actively going to try to make that happen. >> these are very complicated issues. we are all asking why. i did sit down a few hours ago with two friends of nancy lanza, the mother obviously of the shooter. one of them actually knew adam. i think their conversation will give us some context about who this family was. >> he was a very shy, withdrawn

kid. i mean, he clearly did have problems. his mother did tell me that he was suffering with asperger's syndrome and his behavior was typical of someone with that disorder. he was extremely smart. he made a joke once at lunch about an obscure 15th century french poet and i made note of the name. i don't remember it to this day, i'm sorry. but i had to go and look it up and i got the reference, it was an ironic comment and it was just for a kid at that age, he was 16 i think when that happened, to have come up with a reference like that, he must have been brilliant. she had to watch him to make sure that he didn't hurt himself. for example, when she was teaching him how to cook, in the kitchen, she had to be very

careful with the knives so he doesn't hurt himself because he wouldn't realize it. >> she used to go target shooting with a mutual friend of ours who was a retired police officer. i know she was extremely safety conscious. she was that way with everything. >> they were always very closely supervised whenever they went shooting. i can't imagine that she would have left the guns accessible. >> victoria, as i listen to that, so many questions come to mind. but you do realize the complexity of this in terms of mental health issues. we hear that he is a young man who really liked very graphically violent video games. where do we as a society start to look at how we change this? >> we need to start with individuals, chris, because the tragedy of newtown was a mass killing but every day, there are many tragedies that go on. i think one issue that we have to bring light to is domestic

abuse. we know that in 2010, the last year there was full data available, close to 1,000 women were killed by their partners as a result of gun violence. so this is something that was seen most recently in the jovan belcher killing of his girlfriend, again, an issue of mental illness. it's something we need to take apart on an individual level basis and something that can't be ignored once the news cycle is over, but keep pushing ahead. there will be no ah-ha movement for the extreme gun advocates but instead, the rest of us will have to push forward regardless of what the gun lobby says and put the onus on them to push back against protecting innocent lives. >> you know, to the point of the video games and the fact he did seem to like video games, we're just starting to learn more about adam lanza, david axelrod, advisor to the president, tweeted this last night. an nfl post-game, an ad for shoot 'em up video game all for curbing weapons of war but

shouldn't we quit marketing murder as a game? goldie, is he right? >> i think he is right about that. i think we've got a broad conversation to have with ourselves. we have to talk about the kind of media content that simply desensitizes us to real violence. i have a 2-year-old younger cousin who was acting out something that he saw on his mother's television set. he didn't understand what he was doing, certainly he was 2 1/2 years old. but that kind of repeated, you know, that kind of repeated access or repeated exposure to that kind of content is not good for children. my own son was not allowed to play video games until he was 14 years old. i think it's important to guard our children and keep them safe from some of these messages that are simply destructive. it's in our music, it's in our movies, it's in our even cartoons these days that are marketed to children. i think that's just simply unfortunate for us.

>> goldie, victoria, kelly, thank you very much. we'll be right back. i always wait until the last minute. can i still ship a gift in time for christmas? yeah, sure you can. great. where's your gift? uh... whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. ship fedex express by december 22nd for christmas delivery.

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we are back with a poignant part of last night's prayer vigil where president obama read the names of the 20 children killed. >> charlotte. daniel. olivia. josephine. ana. dylan. madeleine.

catherine. chase. jesse. james. grace. emilie. jack. noah. caroline. jessica. benjamin. avielle. allison. god has called them all home. >> our hearts break for their families. that's going to wrap up this hour of "jansing and company." thomas roberts is up next. thomas? chris, thanks so much. coming up on the agenda next hour, national voices grow louder in the wake of newtown for national gun regulation. while the nra and its political supporters remain mum, the president remains resolute. what does meaningful change look like in this country when it comes to regulation?

msnbc policy analyst ezra klein will join us to talk about the ten bills that are currently sitting stalled in congress. action that could happen right away. however, does our american right to bear arms trump the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? our question of the day. your answers in the next hour. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics... a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. celebrex can be taken with or without food. and it's not a narcotic. you and your doctor should balance the benefits with the risks.

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hi, everybody. i'm thomas roberts on a regular monday morning at this time, the halls of connecticut sandy hook elementary would be filled with the sounds of children and their teachers. however, today, that school remains a crime scene, closed indefinitely just days after 20 small children and six educators were murdered, brutally extinguished in an act of violence that has gripped the hearts and minds of this nation. 26 souls lost and today, the first funerals will be held for two of the youngest victims. 6-year-old jack pinto, a new york giants fan, and noah

pozner, whose twin sister survived the shooting. we are also learning new information about the connecticut state police investigation, including that the gunman, adam lanza, had enough ammunition if given more time to shoot hundreds of students in the halls of sandy hook. >> every single facet of the weapons will be analyzed. every single round of ammunition will be looked at and examined for any kind of physical evidence. i alluded yesterday to the volume of rounds, for example, that were seized or recovered. each singular round will be examined. >> president obama last night visited with families who lost loved ones inside that school. here, he is holding slain principal dawn hochsprung's baby granddaughter. the president sat among the mourners of newtown at the vigil and told them they are not alone in their grief. >> all across this land of ours, we have wept with you.